AMD Radeon HD 6630M vs Intel HD 3000 for driving a Thunderbolt Display

From the table in this document http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4885 I would say that the 6630 is more powerful for ThunderBolt usage than the Intel 3000.

But a final descision should be made only when testing the combination in an Apple Store or reseller.

Stefan

It all depends on your usage. If you use applications that require

a lot of GPU horsepower (games and some rendering apps), you

will need the discrete GPU.

As to how the HD 3000 graphics handles a Thunderbolt Display,

I have just recently purchased one and am currently using it with

a 2011 13" i7 Macbook Pro, which has the same integrated graphics.

The MBP has 8 gig of RAM and I have had no problems or issues

so far. My usage is primarily electronics design wiith Win7 in

Parallels doing mostly 2D schematics and some mechhanical

CAD work on the Mac side. I have had no problems with moving

and redrawing large parts of complex designs.

I have also, as a test, openned up some of my previous software

and firmware projects and openned a lot of windows and played

with cutting and pasting and such and have also had no problems.

As for all the "effects", I always disable as much of the eye candy

as possible as it does nothing for productivity and I find it really

annoying.

p.s. Forgot to mention that I am running 10.7.2 and have applied

all other firmware and software updates.

Openned up 9 windows in Safari, all different sites (Google Maps being one),

added a couple desktops and and moved some windows to them and

Mission Control switched desktops quite snappily. Moving windows

between desktops was fast and so was moving in and out of Mission

Control.

This was only a quick 5 minute test, but saw no issues.

One thing to note, even though you were at an Apple Store, they

may not have had all firmware and software updates installed.

How well display machines are maintained can vary greatly from

one store to another. Also, there is no telling what background

tasks they may have been running, which can slow things, regardless

of graphics card. Also, more than likely, they were stock machines

with just the minimum RAM that they come with. Taking this into

account, quite often laggy or stuttering graphics is more often

a function of CPU and memory load, and not graphics card performance.

One thing I should also make clear, is that my MBP does

have the 2.7 GHz i7 CPU. The CPU has a much better

perfomance than the i5s in the base Minis.

Your welcome and good luck. I think you will be pleased.

The Mini your getting is basically my MBP without display

or optical disk. Make sure you get all updates installed

when you get it, if needed, both firmware and software.

There was also a firmware update for the Thunderbolt display

itself that may be needed. If all is current, should work great.

Dear KYL,

Could you please provide an update on your Expose/MC graphics performance of the i7 with Radeon 6630M?

I just recently purchased the i7 server version (quad core but intel HD3000 graphics), and Expose and Mission contorl are both sluggish and jerky on a Dell 2560x1440 display. If I drop the resolutin down and ouput over HDMI, it seems to be smoother.

I went to apple store and could only try the base i5 mini with HD3000 connected to Thunderbolt. This was also jerky.

By comparison, a 27" iMac gave silky smooth expose and MC function.

I use expose hundrreds of times a day as I have a very intensive multitasking workflow. I don't need any 3D graphics capabilities.

I am really disappointed, and am hoping to replace the i7 server for the i7 model with 6630M GPU. Please can you let me know if is model runs OK?

Alternatively, would upgrading my i7 server to 8Gb make a difference?

ZX48 wrote:

Alternatively, would upgrading my i7 server to 8Gb make a difference?

I have 8 gig of RAM on my MiniServer/Thunderbolt setup

and it works quit well. Taking the RAM to 8 gig boosts

the amount of RAM available for video from 384 to 512

meg. Also, it seems from your description that you have

a lot of apps, or apps that use a lot of data. Increasing the

RAM will also improve what may be percieved as a video

issue, when it may be actually a general memory issue.

Also note, that the iMac not only has a much more powerful

graphics card (better than any Mini) and also has a faster

processor.

Thanks for your comments. Are you running a 2560x1440 display?

I do intend to upgrade memory to 8GB..but not if the mini cannot do expose smoothly even then.

I am coming from a 2008 (non unibody) MBPro running Leopard, where Expose is butter smooth. And is even relatively smooth when I plug in the 27" Dell display! It only has 256MB RAM. NVIDIA 8600M GT.

On that machine I might have up to a dozen apps open, with 10-20 windows in total. Expose is a huge part of my multitasking workflow. Can lion really be so much more inefficient?

Regarding iMac, the processor is not that much faster. The quad i7 mini can turbo up to 2.9 Ghz I believe. I also have a 256GB SSD in there.

However, the 27" iMac I tested in store did indeed have 1GB of graphics memory.

Dear KYL, thanks for you fast and honest response. I have to say I am really disappointed. Apple sell so few machines/hrdware choice, you would have thought that the ones they do sell could run the core function of the OS smoothly!

I am really surprised that the Intel chip outperforms the 6630 for 2D? So the 6630 must only be better for 3D?

Is there anywhere that list 2D and 3D performance of different graphics cards to get some idea?

I may try adding the 8 RAM this week and see if it helpls at all. If it does, I wonder if there is a way to force the HD3000 to use even more RAM? i.e my modifying some of the preference or extension files somewhere.

If it doesn't I'm not sure what I will do. all this is logged with Applecare, but the machine was bought by my University, so returning it will be terribly inconvenient - if it is at all possible.

Buying a 15" MBPro is a very expensive way to achieve smooth Expose! I also will have unnecessarily ordered a superdrive external, and would then need to spec the MBPro with a SSD. And get an external HD too.

I love the mini, and the speed of the i7 + SSD is incredible, but jerky OS on something one uses 8 hours a day is just not acceptable.

The purchase is already inconvenient as I have to virtualise SL server to run some old academic software that needs Rosetta (but at leat that works).

Ho hum...

Expose has been around for 8 years or so. I'm amazed modern hardware can't work it smoothly (even on a big display)

h and one f the reasons I did not chosose an iMac is becasue of the glossy display. I have a large window in my office and overhead fluorescent strip lights. Absolutley impossible to work on a reflective display IMO. Hence I boight the 27" Dell U2711. (this also has the added benefit that i can run it from the MBPro via DVI if I need to by simply switching inputs.